JP2579232Y2 - Image data reading device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to an image data reading apparatus that reads and stores image data such as a document, and displays or prints out the image data as necessary.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, image data such as a document is read using an image scanner, index data is added to the read image data, and a plurality of pieces are stored in a storage unit such as a memory or a magnetic disk. An image data recording apparatus which searches for and reads out arbitrary image data by designating index data in accordance with an image data, and displays or prints out the image data has been considered. In this type of image data recording device,
A plurality of business card image data can be stored.

[Problem to be Solved by the Invention] However, regardless of the amount of data, the image data is converted into a black and white binary image including a blank area and stored as it is. In the case of (1), the bit of the value "0" is stored, and when the effective image, that is, the black printing is performed, the bit of the value "1" is stored. When the data is called, the image data consisting of "0" and "1" stored in the storage means is called and displayed or printed out as it is.

If the image data is stored as it is as described above, the amount of image data required for storage increases, and the storage capacity of the storage unit is limited, so that only a limited number of data can be stored. .

Further, as described above, since the image data is always stored and displayed while being read, if a small character or the like is included in the image data, the character or the like is displayed in terms of the display resolution of the display unit or the like. Even if you can't read it.

This invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and makes it possible to effectively use the capacity of the storage means for storing image data, to store more image data, and to store the image data in the image data. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image data reading apparatus which does not include characters that are too large or too small, and makes it possible to obtain image data that is easy to view by unifying the size of each character to the same extent.

[Means and Actions for Solving the Problems] In the present invention, image data is read by, for example, an image scanner or the like, and an effective image block of the read image data is written and stored in storage means together with its position information. The size of the effective image block is determined based on the position information, and the effective image block is enlarged / reduced according to the result of the determination. The effective image block is output by using the capacity of the memory for storing the image data more effectively. In addition to storing image data, characters that are too large or too small in the image data can be eliminated, and the size of each character can be uniformed to make it easier to see.

[Embodiment] An embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a business card file device will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 show the external configuration, in which 11 is a main body case. This main body case 11 is an upper case 11a
And the lower case 11b are connected and integrated to have a size that can be held by the hand when folded, and FIG. 1 shows the opened state. Inside the upper case 11a of the main body case 11, a liquid crystal display panel 12 with a dot matrix for displaying read image data and index data to be described later, a power key 13 for turning on / off the power,
2 for switching between "registration" mode and "search" mode
A mode changeover switch 14 using a contact slide switch and an execution key 15 for executing various instructions are provided.
A character / numerical key 16 for inputting index data or the like is provided inside the lower case 11b. Further, on the side surface of the upper case 11a, a reading unit 17 for reading business card image data is provided on one side, and a reading switch 18 for instructing reading is provided on the other side. The reading unit 17
Although the details are not described, for example, a line sensor having a read pixel of 8 to 16 dots / mm in length corresponding to the width of the business card, a light source, and an encoder for generating a read timing signal from the read moving speed are incorporated. The upper case 11a and the lower case 11b are folded as shown in FIG.
An image printed on the business card 19 by scanning the business card 19 in the direction indicated by the arrow A while pressing the reading switch 18 while holding the reading switch 18 in a state in which the reader 17 stands up against one end of the upper surface of the business card 19 to be read. The data will be read.

Next, the configuration of an electronic circuit provided in the main body case 11 will be described with reference to FIG. In the same figure, the power key 13,
Key input section consisting of mode switch 14, density key 15, execution key 16, character / numerical key 17, and read switch 18.
All the key input signals by the key operation at 21 are sent to the control unit 22 composed of a CPU. The control unit 22 controls the operation of each of the other circuits according to a signal from the key input unit 21 and stores a microprogram for operation control.
Specify the address of the ROM address specification section 24 of the ROM 23 to
While reading the microprogram from the RAM 25 and inputting / outputting data to / from the RAM 25 storing various data by addressing. The control unit 22 outputs a control command to the reading control unit 26 and display data to the display control unit 27. The reading control unit 26
The line sensor of the reading unit 17 according to a command from the control unit 22
A drive signal is sent to 28 to read the target image data. The image data read by the line sensor 28 is taken into the control unit 22 via the reading control unit 26 and stored in the RAM 25. The display control unit 27 obtains a drive signal based on the display data sent from the control unit 22, and controls the display unit 29 including the liquid crystal display panel 12 based on the drive signal to display image data and the like. Output.

The RAM 25 stores the display data storage unit 2 as shown in FIG.
5a, an image data storage unit 25b, an index area 25c, a work area 25d, and a temporary storage unit 25e. The display data storage unit 25a is an area that has at least a number of bit memories corresponding to all bit maps of the dot matrix of the display unit 29 and stores display data of the display unit 29.
Further, the image data storage unit 25b is an area for storing a plurality of pieces of image data obtained by forming effective image blocks. The index area 25c includes an index data storage unit Ia that stores index data input and set by the character / numerical key 16 corresponding to the image data stored in the image data storage unit 25b, and each of the effective image blocks that have been blocked. A plurality of coordinate data storage units Ic for storing coordinate data which is position information indicating the position of the four corners of the read image data in the whole image data, and designated by the coordinate data storage unit Ic Image block is image data storage
It is composed of a plurality of sets of areas each including a plurality of address storage units Ib for storing at which address positions on the storage area 25b, and the numbers “I ₀ ”, “I ₁ ”, and “I ₂ ” are assigned to the respective sets. …
Are added in order. Moreover, the work area 25d is X ₀ register which is used for blocking of the image data, Y ₀ register, Y ₁ registers, X ₁ register, Y register, X register consists of G register or the like. Y ₁ register is a two-stage structure of the upper y _m registers and lower y _n registers, similarly X ₁ register has a two-stage structure of the upper x _m registers and lower x _n register. The temporary storage unit 25e has at least a number of bit memories corresponding to all bitmaps of the read image data of one business card, and temporarily stores the image data when blocking or enlarging / reducing the image data. This is the area to put.

 Next, the operation of the above embodiment will be described.

FIG. 5 shows the contents of the overall operation by the control unit 22. At first, as shown in step A01, the operation position of the mode switch 14 is set to any of the "registration" and "search" mode setting positions. To determine if

If the position is in the "registration" mode, the process proceeds to step A02, where image data is actually read. In this case, as shown in FIG. 2, the reading unit 17 is brought into contact with the upper surface of the business card 19 to be read, and the business card 19 is scanned while the reading switch 18 is kept pressed.
Are read by the line sensor 28 in units of one line, and the pixel portion is sent to the control section 22 via the reading control section 26 sequentially as the data of "1" and the blank section of "0". The control unit 22 temporarily stores the sequentially sent line-by-line image data in the temporary storage unit 25e of the RAM 25, and simultaneously compresses the data to “1/2” before the display data storage unit 2
5a, that is, in the image data stored in the temporary storage unit 25e, only every other row of data is stored in the display data storage unit.
The display data is sent to the display control unit 27 as display data, and is displayed on the display unit 29. The entire image data of one business card 19 is read, and the temporary storage unit 25e and the display register 25a are read.
After that, the control unit 22 waits for the input of index data by the character / numerical key 16 of the key input unit 21 as shown in step A03. When the input of the index data is performed, the index data is also temporarily stored in a predetermined position of the temporary storage unit 25e and the display data storage unit 25a, that is, in a storage area different from the storage area of the image data, and is temporarily stored in the display data storage unit 25a. It is displayed on the display unit 29 via the display control unit 27. Next, in step A03, the system waits for a registration confirmation instruction by operating the execution key 15. When the execution key 15 is operated, the process proceeds to step A04, where block coordinates of the image data stored in the temporary storage unit 25e are detected.

FIG. 6 shows a flowchart of the process of detecting and storing the block coordinates. First, as shown in step B01, a row of image data is detected from the bit map of the image data stored in the temporary storage unit 25e. . That is, the image data stored in the temporary storage unit 25e is the eleventh
As shown in the figure, a blank bit is stored as “0”, and a black pixel (with printing) is stored as “1”.

Thus, the horizontal direction of the coordinate x ₀ of the bit map in the temporary storage unit _{25e, x 1, x 2,} x 3, ..., in the vertical direction coordinate _{y 0, y 1, y 2} ,
When y ₃ ,..., the horizontal direction having the same y coordinate is defined as a row, and the vertical direction having the same x coordinate is defined as a column, and it is determined whether each row has at least one pixel data “1”. The determination means is as shown in FIG.

That is, FIG. 7 shows the processing contents of the data presence detection. At the beginning of the processing, in step C01, the control unit 22 initializes both the X register and the Y register of the work area 25d of the RAM 25 to "0". And Next, at step C02, the X register is updated and set to "+1". Next step C03
Then, it is determined whether or not the column position corresponding to the content of the X register is the last column on the bit map. Here, since the X register is “1”, the determination result is NO. Then, the process proceeds to step C04 to determine whether or not the bit of the pixel data is “1” at the coordinate position indicated by the contents of the X register and the Y register. to decide. If not "1", the above step C02 is performed again.
And the content of the X register is incremented by "+1" again, and the above processing is repeated again.

If it is determined in step C04 that there is pixel data "1", there is at least one pixel data "1" in the row, and the process proceeds from step C04 to step C05, where the contents of the Y register at that time, that is, storing y-coordinate data with data in the Y ₀ register (not shown) of the work area 25d. Thereafter, in step C06, the content of the Y register is updated and set to "+1", and the X register is cleared to "0". Here, it is determined in step C07 whether or not the row position corresponding to the updated contents of the Y register is the last row on the bit map. After it is determined that the row position is different, whether or not there is data in the next row is determined. Step C0 again to detect
Perform the processing from 2. Thus, it is determined whether or not each row has at least one pixel data "1".
Continue to store the coordinate data sequentially Y ₀ register in the work area 25d.

If it is determined in step C07 that the row position corresponding to the contents of the Y register is the last row on the bitmap, the detection of the presence of a data row on the bitmap in the temporary storage unit 25e in FIG. It is done.

FIG. 12, thus illustrate the storage state of the X ₀ register which stores the x coordinate data of Y ₀ registers and data-stored sequence in the work area 25d which stores the y coordinate data of the data-stored line. As described above, the process of detecting the effective block coordinates shown in step B03 is performed based on the coordinate data obtained by scanning the bit map of the temporary storage unit 25e in both the vertical and horizontal directions in steps B01 and B02.

Figure 8 is shows the details of the detection process of the valid block coordinates, as first shown in Step D01 Y ₁ registers y _m registers of the work area 25d, the y _n registers, 12
The first row coordinate data "y _112" stores set as FIG. 13 which is stored in the Y ₀ register in the same work area 25d shown in FIG. After setting the initial value "0" to G register the work area 25d for counting the distance between the blocks in the next step D02, and the value of y _n register sets "+1" updated in step D03 "y ₁₁₃ "and the following step D04
To determine whether the value is the last row on the bit map of the display register. If NO, then step D0
Proceed to 5, the coordinate data that matches the value of y _n register "y _113" it is judged whether it is stored in the Y ₀ register. In this case, since the data is stored, the determination result is YES, the G register is cleared in the subsequent step D06, and the processing from step S03 is repeated again.

Thus while sequentially updated and set the value of y _n registers, continue to search for the last row address in the same block. When coordinate data matches the value of y _n register is not stored in the Y ₀ register, Step D Step D05
In step 07, the contents of the G register are updated and set to "+1".
Thereafter, in step D08, it is determined whether or not the content of the G register is "16". If not, the process from step D03 is repeated again. Thereafter, while sequentially updating and setting the value of the register y _n ,
It is counted by a counter.

The G register counts row coordinates with no continuous data, and when the count value reaches a certain number “16”,
This is for recognizing that an image block has been cut off and has become a blank area. Here, the fixed number “16” is 1 if the resolution of the line sensor 28 is 16 dots / mm.
This is a value indicating that rows without images continue over mm.

When the count value of the G register is determined to be "16", then the value of y _n registers in step D09 is "-16", it is returned to the row coordinate data with data. Thereafter, the next data-stored row coordinate data Y ₁ registers y _m register which is stored in the Y ₀ register at step D10, the newly added set to y _n registers, the contents of the additional set y _n register The processing from step D02 is repeatedly executed again.

Thus, the Y ₁ registers work area 25d, a set of row coordinate data indicating a region of a data line is sequentially stored. Figure 10 is illustrative of the image data of the business card 19, a set of row coordinate data together indicating a region of the rows of the block indicated by broken lines will be stored sequentially Y ₁ register. 14th
Figure stored in Y ₁ registers work area 25d, indicates the area of the row coordinates of the effective image block, and corresponds to, for example, first block in the image data, regions of the row coordinate "y ₁₁₂ "and" _y240 "are stored.

Repeat the process of step D02～D10, after all stores the area of the row coordinates of the effective image blocks Y ₁ register, the value of y _n register is determined to be the last line in step D04 , then proceeds to step D11, the detected row region above "y ₁₁₂ ~y _240", "y ₂₅₆ ~y _412",
"Y ₄₉₆ ~y _520" searches the column coordinate with the image data in ..., X ₁ registers work area 25d and the minimum coordinate data and maximum coordinate data each x _m registers and x
Store in the _n register.

Thus by combining the coordinate data of each row region stored in the coordinate data and X ₁ register of each row region stored in Y ₁ registers work area 25d in step D11, the coordinate data of the block area can be detected It becomes. For example, in the first block of FIG. 10, coordinate data "y _112" of coordinates of corner 4 points defining a block row region coordinate data of each row region and "y _240" "x _100"
By "x _{928" (y 112, x 110) (} y 112, x 928) (y 240,
x ₁₀₀ ) (y ₂₄₀ , x ₉₂₈ ).

The coordinate data of each block obtained in this way is
In the following step D12, the data is temporarily stored in the index area 25c of the RAM 25. FIG. 15 shows the storage state. In the index area 25c, the coordinate data of a set of four points of the block is stored and set for a set corresponding to the number of blocks. At the same time as ending the block coordinate detection processing, the block coordinate detection storage processing of FIG. 6 is ended.

When the detection and storage processing of the block coordinates is completed as described above, next, in FIG. 5, the process proceeds from step A05 to step A06, and only the portion of the effective image block in the image data held in the temporary storage unit 25e is deleted. The image data is stored in the image data storage unit 25b in accordance with the processing of FIG.

That is, in FIG. 9, first, in step E01, the coordinate data of the first image block stored in the index area 25c is read, and in the subsequent step E02, the difference between the y-coordinates in the coordinate data, that is, the y-coordinate direction of the image block. It is determined whether the width is smaller than “36”. Here, the constant number “36” means that the width of the image block in the y coordinate direction is 2.25 m if the resolution of the line sensor 28 is 16 dots / mm.
It is a value indicating that it is m.

For example, as shown in FIG. 16, the width of the first image block in the y-coordinate direction is “128 (= 240−112)”, which is equal to or larger than “36”. Proceed to step E05. In step E05, the image data is compressed to "64" of "1/2" to be used as display data, and stored in the image data storage unit 25b. The data compression in this case is to read data only when the y-coordinate data in the image data stored in the temporary storage unit 25e is, for example, an odd number.

An image data storage unit 25 that compresses this image data
After storing the data in the index area 25, the coordinate data corresponding to the compressed image block is stored in the index area 25 as shown in step E06.
Read from the coordinate data storage unit Ic of the corresponding area of c, "1/2"
And store it after updating. After that, in step E07, as post-compression processing, the y-coordinate data of the subsequent image blocks is moved up by the amount of compression.

In the coordinate data of the first image block in FIG.
The corresponding y coordinate data “y ₂₄₀ ” shown in FIG.
As a result of the compression processing in step 5, the data is updated and stored as “y ₁₇₆ ”. As a result, the y-coordinate data of the second and subsequent image blocks are all “−64” by the post-processing in step E06. .

After finishing the post-processing in this manner, it is determined whether or not the coordinate data compressed in step E08 is that of the last image block in the image data. If NO is determined here, the coordinate data of the next image block is read in step E09, and the processing from step E02 is repeated again.

If it is determined in step E02 that the width of the image block in the y-coordinate direction is smaller than "36", it is determined that the image block becomes difficult to read characters by data compression processing for normal display. Proceeding to E03, the image data of the image block is stored in the image data storage unit 25b as it is read without performing the data compression process. After that, the coordinate data of the image data is also updated and stored in the coordinate data storage unit Ic of the corresponding area of the index area 25c without performing compression processing in step E04,
It reaches step E08.

In this way, the process is repeatedly executed on the coordinate data while updating the image block until it is determined in step E08 that the coordinate data is that of the last image block. 3 shows the coordinate data updated and stored in the coordinate data storage unit Ic of the corresponding area of the index area 25c by the image data storing process. As shown in the figure, the y-coordinate data at the end of the first block is changed from “y ₂₄₀ ” to “−
64 "is to have a" y ₁₇₆ ", and this to the second initial y-coordinate data of the image block is also" y ₂₅₆ "from the" -64 "and take a" y ₁₉₂ ". Further, the width of the second image block in the y coordinate direction is "160 (= 416
−256) ”and“ 36 ”or more, so that the width in the y-coordinate direction is data-compressed to“ 80 ”, and the last y-coordinate data is“ y ₂₇₂ ”. The first y coordinate data of the third image block is also changed from “y ₄₉₆ ” to “−142 (= − (6
4 + 78)) "to become" y ₃₅₄ ". In the case of the third image block, the width of the image block in the y coordinate direction is “24 (= 520−496)”, which is smaller than “36”.
No data compression is performed for display, and the last y coordinate data is “y ₂₇₂ ”.

When the image data storage processing in step A06 is completed as described above, the process proceeds to step A07, where the index data input in step A03 and held in temporary storage unit 25e is stored in index area 25c. The image data of one business card is stored in the image data storage unit 25b, and the address on the image data storage unit 25b and the coordinate data at the time of display are stored together with the index data. one index area 25c, and stored in, for example, area I _0.
Thereafter, each time a business card image is read, the image data is stored in the image data storage unit 25b as shown in FIG. 5, and the index data, the address on the image data storage unit 25b, the coordinate data at the time of display, the item Data is stored in areas I ₁ , I ₂ , I ₃ ,.

Next, processing for searching for arbitrary image data from a large number of image data stored in the RAM 25 will be described.

To perform a search, first use the mode switch
After setting the “14” to the “search” mode, the index data of the desired image data is key-input by the character / numerical key 16. The process of FIG. 5 is executed again by this key input. If the mode is determined to be the "search" mode in step A01 at the beginning, the next step A0
The index data entered in 8 is stored in the temporary storage
Held temporarily at 25e. After waiting for the operation key 15 to be operated in the subsequent step A09, the matching index data is stored from the index data storage units Ia of the areas I ₀ , I ₁ , I ₂ ,... Of the index storage unit 25c. Search for things in order. Then, it is determined whether or not there is a match at step A10.If there is, the process proceeds to step A11, where the coordinate data of the effective block corresponding to the index data is read from the index storage unit 25c, and The image data is read from the image data storage unit 25b according to the address storage unit Ib, and the coordinate data storage unit Ic is read.
Is stored in the display data storage unit 25a so as to return to the original position, and this is displayed on the display unit 29 and the process is terminated.

FIG. 17 shows an example of the image data of the business card thus obtained. As shown in FIG. 10, the image blocks S ₁ and S ₂ in the image data have a fixed width in the y-coordinate direction at the time of registration. If it is smaller, it is determined that the data is not normally compressed for storing the display data, and as a result, the third and fourth image blocks S in FIG. _3, is intended to be displayed as an image block extended as shown in S _4.

If it is determined in step A09 that there is no image data having the index data matching the input index data, the process proceeds to step A12, and an error display indicating that there is no matching data is displayed on the display unit.
29, and the process ends.

In the above embodiment, after the read image data is divided into blocks, the data is compressed in advance in the y-coordinate direction to “1/2” and stored as display data, which is read out and displayed as it is. When searching and displaying image blocks stored compressed to "1/2", image data stored as they are as they were when they were read without compression are searched for as original image data. In the display, an example has been shown in which the image data is displayed as image data expanded at twice the size in the y coordinate direction. However, various modifications and applications are possible for the compression / expansion without being limited to this method. Needless to say,

In the above-described embodiment, an example is shown in which an image of a business card is read and stored as image data, and this is displayed and output.
It goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to the business card image, and any other image can be stored by the same processing.

In the above embodiment, the line sensor is used for image reading. However, it is a matter of course that a dot matrix type full sensor for reading all image data at the same time may be used, and various modifications and changes may be made without departing from the gist of the present invention. Application is possible.

[Effects of the Invention] As described in detail above, according to the invention, image data is read by, for example, an image scanner or the like, and an effective image block of the read image data is written and stored in storage means together with its position information, The size of the effective image block is determined based on the position information, and the effective image block is enlarged / reduced in accordance with the result of the determination, so that the effective image block is output. To provide an image data reading device capable of storing image data of any one of the above, eliminating characters that are too large or too small in the image data, and unifying the size of each character to the same level for easy viewing. Can be.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an external configuration of an embodiment of the present invention,
FIG. 2 is a side view showing an external configuration when reading an image, FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an electronic circuit, and FIG. 4 is a block diagram of FIG.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the area configuration of the RAM, FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the entire processing contents, FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the contents of the block coordinate detection processing of FIG. 5, and FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the contents of the process of detecting the coordinates of the effective block in FIG. 6, FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the contents of the image data storage process in FIG. 5, and FIG. Is a diagram showing read image data, FIG. 11 is a diagram partially showing the read image data, FIG. 12 to FIG. 16 are diagrams showing a storage area in the work area and the index storage unit, and FIG. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating image data read by a search. 11 ... body case, 11a ... upper case, 11b ... lower case, 12 ... liquid crystal display panel, 13 ... power key, 14 ... mode select switch, 15 ... execution key, 16 ... character / number Key, 17 ... Reading part, 18 ... Reading switch, 19 ...
Business card, 21 Key input unit, 22 Control unit, 23 ROM, 2
4 ROM address designation section, 25 RAM, 25a display data storage section, 25b image data storage section, 25c index area, 25d work area, 25e temporary storage section, 26 ... a reading control unit, 27 ... a display control unit, 28 ... a line sensor, 29 ... a display unit.

Claims (1)

(57) [Scope of request for utility model registration] An image reading means for reading image data; a position information detecting means for obtaining position information of an effective image data portion in the image data obtained by the image reading means; the effective image data and the position Image data storage means for storing information; determination means for determining the size of the effective image data based on the effective image data stored in the image data storage means and its position information; Output means for enlarging / reducing the effective image data stored in the data storage means and outputting the enlarged / reduced image data.